Posted on 10/13/2005 10:56:43 AM PDT by floriduh voter
Please help Floridians restore Florida from the Starvation State back to the Sunshine State. How can anyone visit Florida and enjoy their experience knowing what happened here?
Let's disband Judge Greer's elite corps from Pinellas County who participated in onerous, double dealing, immoral and illegal activities.
GREER'S ELITE CORPS: Former Sheriff Everett Rice vies for Fla AG
GREER'S ELITE CORPS: Current AG Charlie Crist vies for Fla Governor
Thanks in advance for helping Floridians save our State!
(Excerpt) Read more at conservative-spirit.org ...
http://www.sptimes.com/2004/04/20/State/Racetrack__gambling_m.shtml
The Miami Herald always prints negative GOP material and their article is up to date.
Posted on Fri, Oct. 14, 2005
HERALD WATCHDOG | REPUBLICAN PARTY
State GOP to repay racetrack for travel
The state Republican Party said it will reimburse the owner of Gulfstream Park nearly $50,000 that the company paid to fly four lawmakers to Toronto.
BY GARY FINEOUT
The Republican Party of Florida did a turnabout Thursday and said the party will fork over nearly $50,000 to the owner of Gulfstream Park to reimburse the company for money it spent to fly four powerful state lawmakers to Toronto this summer.
The four legislators spent two days in July in Canada, including eating at a restaurant that overlooks Niagara Falls, before they were flown back to Florida on a private jet paid for by Magna Entertainment Corp., which owns the Broward County racetrack and others around the country.
The legislators said the trip was organized as part of an effort to raise money for the state GOP, and Magna reported an in-kind donation to the party for the amount of the expenses. But state Senate President Tom Lee said no one in the party ever authorized the visit, and on Thursday, a party spokeswoman said that the Republican Party should not have reported the trip as a donation from Magna to the party.
OVERSEE PARIMUTUELS
The Republican Party plans to write a check for $48,180 to Magna to cover the cost of the private plane, lodging and meals that went to state Sens. Jim King, Michael Bennett and Dennis Jones and state Rep. Frank Farkas. While none of the legislators are from South Florida, both Jones, a St. Petersburg Republican, and King, a Jacksonville Republican, sit on the committee that regulates parimutuel gambling in the state.
''It's unfortunate these members put the party in this situation,'' said state GOP spokeswoman Camille Anderson.
But even if the party picks up the cost of the trip, the four legislators may still be open to ethics charges that they accepted illegal gifts, because the party did not arrange the trip or select the lawmakers who went.
King continued to defend the trip on Thursday, saying he viewed it as an effort to try to woo a major company to Florida, since a company related to Magna Entertainment is a $20 billion conglomerate that manufactures auto parts and assembles cars.
''We came back thinking it was a worthwhile trip,'' King said. ``I am sorry there was any supposed taint the party felt they had. I applaud their actions, because by doing so they have validated it.''
But while the decision to reimburse Magna may end the party's involvement in the trip, Lee said Thursday that he will ask the Senate's top lawyer to investigate the ''circumstances and facts of the trip,'' including how it was organized and who paid for it. Lee, a Brandon Republican, said he would rather have the Senate conduct its own investigation instead of waiting for someone to file an ethics complaint to trigger an inquiry.
''I have no reason to believe that laws have been broken,'' Lee said. ``We're doing this because we don't think it's appropriate for a presiding officer to wait for some external action to happen when we know there are clouds hanging over the Senate. . . . The best thing we can do is be proactive.''
SENATE PRECEDENT
Lee's call for an internal investigation is the same action he took in the spring after The Herald reported that state Sen. Mandy Dawson, a Fort Lauderdale Democrat, had solicited money from lobbyists to pay for her January trip to South Africa. That inquiry concluded that Dawson violated state ethics laws. The senator was publicly reprimanded by the Senate and removed from the chamber's Ethics and Elections Committee.
King said he welcomed the inquiry.
''There is absolutely nothing we did wrong,'' said King, who has been a fixture in the Florida Legislature since 1986. ``There's no rule or law we broke. I've been raising money for the party for two decades. We went for a purpose. We were invited by the company to come to talk about their increased involvement in the Republican Party of Florida and to also look at their short-term and long-term prospects for Florida.''
King said that the Toronto trip netted a $10,000 contribution and a pledge of $50,000.
But it turns out the check that legislators collected was not from Magna Entertainment, but from Gulfstream. It wasn't deposited until this week because it had not been given to party officials until now, even though it was written on July 7.
TURNED IN REPORT
The payment for the lawmakers' trip came to light this week when the state Republican Party turned in its quarterly contribution reports. The report showed an ''in-kind'' donation of $48,180 from Magna, which owns 12 racetracks around the country, including Gulfstream in Hallandale Beach and Baltimore's Pimlico Race Course, home of the Preakness race. In-kind contributions are donations of goods and services rather than cash or checks and can include travel, food, polling, phone banks and other services useful to party operations.
There is nothing illegal or improper about such large contributions, as long as they are controlled by the party. But they cannot be made to individual legislators: State law prohibits giving lawmakers gifts valued at more than $100.
FV SAYS: Senator Jim King is destroying Florida's Republican Party. He's up for re-election next year. He's a real sleazy character. Fla AG Crist won't investigate this nor will the Florida Elections Commission or the Legislative Ethics panel. Throw the bums out!
FV SAYS: King, Bennett and Jones voted against Terri Schiavo's life. (Farkas voted for Terri but is now spending time with them). Farkas lost my vote for 2006 for hanging around with the three rinos.
Ella says: Good article about hypocritical Tom Gallagher:
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/07/03/Tampabay/Meet_the_new_Tom_Gall.shtml
The St. Pete Times new slogan is: We Cried with You, We are You. (they're not me and if it's from the St. Pete Times they are big time left wingers who would like Crist to win. Crist is a left wing GOPer like his pal Judge Greed.
Senator Jim King Under Ethics Violation Inquiry
To: State Desk
JACKSONVILLE, Florida, Oct. 14 /Christian Wire Service/ -- Randall Terry, Candidate for Florida Senate District 8, released the following statement:
"It appears that Jim King and these senators broke the law by taking an illegal $48,000 contribution from a Gambling Casino in Canada.
"These millionaire senators are in trouble, but rather than pay the money back themselves, they have put the Florida Republican Party in the horrid position of using its donors' money to pay back the casino. The widow in St. John's County who gives $30 to the GOP isn't doing it to send senators to casinos or to bail senators out of ethics violations.
"The simplest thing to do would be for Mr. King and the others to each pay back his $12,000 share of the trip, and apologize to their constituents and the party. Then we can put this behind us."
Crist is not left wing, don't be silly.
Crist is no conservative. He has left wing values. And he's done a lousy job as Fla AG.
You can fool some of the people all the time but Florida Republicans who back RINOS are fooled on a daily basis.
There you go again.
Florida's worst disaster of 2006 would be Crist. He's a promoter of the death care system on his state web page. I'm sorry I voted for him in 2002. It won't happen again. Ever.
Florida's worst disaster would be one of the democrats.
I'd like to know why we even have half the laws on the books. They seem to pick and choose which ones to enforce. Even a cursory look at Crist's past campaign contributions shows several donors who gave more than the $500 max.
Jim King also had some that gave much more. I could make contributions under my pets names and give them a whole lot more than the law supposedly allows.
Caregiver Accused Of Assaulting Disabled Adult
MIAMI -- A 24-year-old woman was caught on tape abusing a cerebral palsy patient, according to investigators.
Attorney General Charlie Crist and Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle announced the arrest of Tierra Shaunte Henry. Investigators say Henry caused the permanent disfigurement of a 22-year-old woman who lives at the Skylake Group Home in Miami Beach.
Investigators said that Henry pushed the woman to the floor and held her face-down in a rear arm lock, causing the woman to suffer a broken tooth and split lip. They also said that Henry neglected to provide appropriate medical attention to the woman following the incident.
The 22-year-old woman is unable to speak and could not report the alleged abuse to caretakers at the facility, but officials said that surveillance cameras captured the incident on tape.
http://www.local10.com/news/5100341/detail.html
Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist; Earns Verizon Wireless HopeLine(R) Anti-Domestic Violence Award; Safespace of Miami To Receive $10,000 Grant For New Initiative
MIAMI --(Business Wire)-- Sept. 28, 2005 -- Verizon Wireless has presented its national HopeLine(R) Law Enforcement Partnership Award to Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist for his department's outstanding efforts against domestic violence. In conjunction with the award, Verizon Wireless contributed $10,000 to Safespace, a Miami-based domestic violence shelter. The grant is to launch the agency's new program -- "Driving to a Safespace" - which is designed to help families impacted by domestic abuse achieve greater personal and financial independence.
http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2005/Sep/1187951.htm
New programs are too late for her.
One murder of a disabled Floridian is one too many and Terri's dead. Charlie Crist forgot about Terri Schiavo's Civil Rights entirely and even lied to the media about if he did or didn't receive Complaints from DCF about Terri. There's a MISSING DCF file and I'm glad I don't know where it is.
Crist lied, Terri died.
CRIST LIED, TERRI DIED.
CHARLIE CRIST IS IN THE PINELLAS COUNTY KABAL. He smells of judicial tyranny. Do we want someone who helped pull off a murder as Florida's next governor? I think not.
Been there and already done that. FV
Don't be silly. Charlie Crist didn't kill Terri.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1437237/posts
What are the odds that Hellenist Felos, an attorney does not know another Greek attorney, Charlie Crist and they are from the same county? Of course they know each other. Lots of Felos' work is on CRIST'S FLA AG HOME PAGE. Crist is for a culture of death - so are his powerful friends from Pinellas County. Beyond that, Crist has nothing to offer Floridians. He can only offer end of life choices. His campaign mgr is Sembler Sr.'s son. Sembler Sr. was Judge Greer's campaign mgr for county commission. GREER IS CORRUPT. Crist is so in bed with the Semblers and with the death lobby.
He can't start being a champion for the disabled now to win votes from people who know exactly what happened to Terri Schiavo.
It's too late for him to make amends. He was on Terri's death squad for the team.
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